American Musicals: The Complete Books and Lyrics of Sixteen Broadway Classics

A Library of America Boxed Set

By Laurence Maslon

By Laurence Maslon

About American Musicals: The Complete Books and Lyrics of Sixteen Broadway Classics

Including Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, and 11 other great shows, this landmark collection is your ticket to the Golden Age of the Broadway musical: The Broadway musical is one of America’s great indigenous popular forms, a glorious hybrid that emerged “out of our speech, our tempo, our moral attitudes, our way of moving” (as Leonard Bernstein put it). Now in a landmark two-volume collection, The Library of America presents sixteen enduring masterpieces charting the Broadway musical’s narrative tradition from the groundbreaking Show Boat (1927) through the genre’s Golden Age to its response to the turbulent 1960s with the Tony Award–winning shows Cabaret and 1776. Based on new research, this historic collection presents the complete libretto of each musical in its Broadway opening night version, making these beloved stories available as never before. Irving Berlin and Moss Hart’s As Thousands Cheer is published here for the first time. Show Boat and Pal Joey are presented in newly restored versions. Seven other shows, including South Pacific, Guys and Dolls, and My Fair Lady, return to print for the first time in decades.

Each of these classic musicals has evolved over time, receiving many important revivals and new productions. This Library of America boxed set offers readers unprecedented insight into this living history with a selection of hard-to-find or previously unpublished supplementary items, including lyrics of songs dropped out-of-town or added in later revivals. Lavishly illustrated­­ with 64 pages of photographs and other images drawn from the original productions, the set also contains biographical sketches of the book writers and lyricists; cast lists and other information about the shows’ Broadway openings; and detailed accounts of the path each show took on the road to Broadway. As a special feature, the box includes 16 full-color postcards reproducing the original show posters.

GypsyBook by Arthur Laurents · Music by Jule StyneLyrics by Stephen Sondheim

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ForumBook by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove · Lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim

Fiddler on the RoofBook by Joseph Stein · Music by Jerry Bock · Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

CabaretBook by Joe Masteroff · Music by John Kander · Lyrics by Fred Ebb

1776Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards · Book by Peter Stone

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Inspired by Your Browsing History

Inspired by Your Browsing History

Praise

“This handsome two-volume set . . . returns several major musicals to print for the first time in decades. . . . It is as valuable as it is purely enjoyable.” — Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

“Handsomely packaged, with gorgeous production photos. . . . Maslon has chosen cannily. . . . These volumes are a charming and unexpected outgrowth of The Library of America’s archives. For musical-theater buffs, they are indispensable.” — Critics at Large